Chapter 18
Remember when I said I had to reread the entire Percy jackson series? Well, as I go back and reread I realized I had some of it wrong. So I changed it. Until I finish the series again please tell me any mistakes I make.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Percy Jackson series
Annabeth's POV
My heart screamed in joy as I saw those familiar green eyes.
" Percy!" I yelled from on top of my elegant white dragon.
I saw my idiotic boyfriend's eyes open wide.
" Annabeth?!" He yelled,"what are you doing riding a freaking dragon?"
I ignored him, without thinking, I leaped off the soft white dragon. I could sense everyone's shocked gazes as they realize what I had done. I didn't care. I heard Leo call me suicidal, but he too knew I wouldn't die. Percy would catch me. I relished every moment while skydiving from a dragon 100 ft above ground level, and watching Percy struggle to position himself to catch me. I dived face down.
" Percy! A little to the left." I heard Nico call.
" No! You have to go to the right." Merope ordered."Gods, Percy if you let your maiden die this pitifully then may you be fed to Tartarus alive."
" And it'll be your fault because he's too far to the right," Nico said.
" From your perspective maybe, if-"
" Quiet! Please! Just this once!" Percy growled.
I would've burst out laughing if Percy didn't look so annoyed.
" Don't worry Annabeth, if you die, I think I'll be able to-"
Plop. Nico was cut off. I landed perfectly in Percy's arms. Everyone sighed in relief. Will called me an idiot. I knew Percy was about to say something, but I interrupted him with a smack on the lips. I hugged his neck, not ever wanting to let go. Ever. Leo said something that sounded a lot like an 'awww'.
I broke out kiss and stared up in the sky at Leo's mechanic dragon."Shut up." I said playfully.
Percy, who still looked dazed looked between me, and the dragons.
" You're so reckless sometimes," He smiled childishly.
" Like you aren't."
Merope cleared her throat, seeking attention.
" Okay mind if you please explain that?" Merope said, pointing to the dragon infested sky.
" Right." I motioned them to come down.
We decided for precautious reasons to not camp in the oasis. It was too suspicious. All of us gathered in a circle, the dragons were resting not far from us. Festus tried to start a conversation or something with the other three dragons and got rejected. By nightfall we gathered around the fire Leo made, the two groups told each other what had happened. About Nyx and Hazel's betrayal, mostly. Our group explained about stalking the dragons, and Leo added the little bit on the manicore. Percy's group(Really it was only Percy talking, the other two were arguing something about food and getting fat and being skinny) told us about a roar ( "Oh! That's us!" Leo said.) and how annoying Nico and Merope were.
Then, we staring focusing on more present matters. I told them about how I thought the dragons may be related to their first gift.
" You think these are our first gifts?" Nico said, eyeing the dragons suspiciously.
" Not necessarily," I said.
" But yeah, when you look at the evidence." Leo said.
" First there are three dragons." Will started," the blue one kinda reminds me of the ocean." Will eyed Percy,"The golden one is sorta Zeus-like. But I'm totally lost at the white one. It does not represent…um…qualities of Hades."
If these were for the three, I found it ironic that Nico's would be white and beautiful, and strict Thalia's is boastful gold. But I guess you can't judge a book by it's cover.
" I guess that'll be cool." Percy said, his eyes sparkled." To have dragons I mean."
" Yeah…" Thalia said wistfully.
" I guess," Nico grunted, but I could see the small traces of excitement seeping through.
" No fair." Leo pouted like a little child." I want a dragon."
I could've swore Festus' face was crestfallen.
" Oh! I was joking! Festus, seriously, you're the best dragon ever." Leo apologized.
I think Festes started roaring/crying.
" But the dragons led you here?" Merope said, gesturing to the Oasis.
" Yep," Will said poking a stick into the fire. Sharp crackling echoed in the night.
We all sat in silence for a while. I knew all of us were thinking what I was thinking, as I went ahead and was the first one to blurt it out.
" Let's go inside of that cave tomorrow."
After everyone reluctantly agreed, we got ready to hit the hay, er, sand. Thalia and Merope unpacked their bags with amazing speed and elegance, I suppose it was a hunter thing.
I set my sleeping bag, or at least what was left of it from the wreckage next to Percy.
" Where's your sleeping bag?" I asked.
" Hmm…I think it's somewhere deep in the Indian Ocean."
I chuckled, then a shameful thought swept over me, and I blushed.
" What's wrong." Percy looked up," are you okay?
"No, I mean, yes…I mean, you can sleep with me if you want…." The last part came out no louder than a squeak. My face was beat tomato, when my grey eyes met Percy's green ones, his face color was almost a reflection of mine.
" Oh, yeah….sure…okay…."
" Ah, love…they're totally taking the next step." Leo giggled like a little girl. Even Nico smirked. Thalia burst out laughing, and Merope looked confused.
If possible, I turned redder than before.
" What does that mean?" Merope asked.
Thalia wiped a tear from her eye. She leaned towards Merope's ear and whispered the dark truth about reproduction. After a while, Merope's eyes went wide, her usually controlled face twisted in disgust and mortified fear. I didn't think it was possible but her eyes moistened as if she was about to cry. She ran off into the dark without a word.
" Thalia, that was cruel." I murmured.
" Sorry," Thalia sighed. "But it was pretty funny."
After a while, Merope came back, the furious atmosphere followed her.
" Perseus Jackson! Don't you dare do anything shameful while lady Annabeth is innocently sleeping! If you do…" She clung to her mouth, if I was red, then she was green.
" I wasn't going to do anything!" Percy yelled,"I'm not the one with the dirty mind. They are." He pointed at Leo and Thalia.
" Hey! Reproduction is beautiful, without it you wouldn't be here so stop being immature." Will lectured.
" Acctually I was born from the mind." I said.
" Other than Annabeth." Will said.
" Shut up you people! I'm trying to sleep." Nico commanded.
" Right, guys, the youngest one needs his rest, I think it's well past his bedtime." Leo humored.
Everyone laughed, sometimes it's hard to remember that Nico was still a few years younger than the rest of us. I wondered if he knew how babies were made. Nico rolled his eyes.
" You usually don't sleep too much." I commented." Are you too tired to listen to this grown up stuff?"
Nico glared, I flinched. I had forgotten how cold his glare was."No, we need our strength for tomorrow."
I could tell that wasn't why he wanted to sleep, but Percy and Thalia nodded as if they understood. Merope was still shooting visual daggers at Percy.
" Geez Merope! I'm not going to do anything!" Percy groaned.
That night, the unforgiving dessert was filled with the laughter of demigods.
As I lay half asleep, I was very cautious to make sure that Percy's back wouldn't touch mine. Just him being there set my heart on fire, for good and bad reasons. I wanted to just hold him, but Leo had first watch, so I was pretty sure he'd never let me or anyone else forget it if I did.
Percy kept shifting uncomfortably, as if he was having one of those horrible demigod dreams. I wanted to wake him up, but he could be spying on our enemies and receiving useful information. I was going to try to fall asleep again, but then I heard that god-forsaken word.
"Luke…" It came out hardly a breath, but I heard it. I sat upright like a bolt.
Leo transferred his glance from the fire to me." Something wrong?" He said softly.
I looked at Percy's strained face, logic told me to glance at Thalia, who seemed to be scowling, and then Nico who was…smiling? I pieced the puzzle together. Nico wanting to sleep, then smiling. Thalia and Percy understanding. All three of them making unusual expressions. Percy muttering Luke…something was happening in their dreams that they weren't telling us.
By the time the sun peeked out from the horizon, I still hadn't had a wink of sleep. surprisingly, not monsters came to attack us at night. That was not luck. We were in a forsaken land, monsters should've swarmed such a large group of demigods.
Merope was already awake, she packed her things. She and I were the only ones awake. I saw her grab something from her bag, it was covered in leaves, and it smelled good. Siliva was forming in my mouth already. I was about to sit up when I saw her walk to Nico. Being as curious as I am, I waited. She unwrapped the leaf package. The food looked almost like fried rice, except had much more ingredients. I couldn't believe No one else had awaken to it's smell. Or were they just waiting to see what happens just like me.
Merope chanted some words in ancient greek, and Nico's mouth suddenly opened. She lifted the food, and blew on it. The fried rice like dish turned into dust and entered Nico's mouth. Why would she do that? I asked myself. Then, the idea that Merope might've been poisoning Nico hit me. The prophecy's words popped into my head.
a friend of angel's shall turn, and tear his heart out.
I inched towards my drakon bone sword which lay right beside me on the opposite side of Percy. Somehow, Merope must've sensed my malice or something and she immediately drew her knives into a defensive position. Not caring about slowly reaching for my sword or pretending to be sleeping, I grabbed my sword and charged. Merope barley blocked my first jab, but as I kept advancing, she got better at parring my attacks.
" Annabeth," Merope said once it was almost no effort stopping me,"What are you doing?"
I didn't answer, I thought she was just trying to distract me, so I kept on attacking. Merope wasn't trying to hurt me, I could tell because she had more than one opportunity to strike me, but she didn't. Everyone else started waking up as well.
" What's going on?" Leo yawned."What happened to 'we need our strength today?'"
Merope probably got tired or blocking me, because she sent me back with one, powerful swing.
" Annabeth answer me!" Merope yelled.
I stood up,"What were you doing to Nico?"
Nico, who was just waking, perked up at the mention of his name.
Merope glanced back at Nico slightly as if she was afraid of him, or embarrassed.
" I'll tell you…somewhere else. It's nothing bad, I promise." Merope said uncomfortably.
I hesitated but nodded. If she was going to isolate me from the rest of the group and then finish me off, I'd like to see her try. I followed Merope far enough from the others that they wouldn't be able to hear, but could still see.
" Well? What was thing you put in Nico's mouth?" I cut right t the point.
Merope looked down."It's called mushroom risotto. I heard it was a really good Italian dish, so I made some to apologize to Nico for bad mouthing him…"
I was shocked. Merope did something nice for a boy, that was something really impressive. My hearted also tugged at guilt, guilt for attacking her without hearing what she had to say first. It wasn't like me. I tried to shake this feeling from my chest by making a light-hearted conversation from it.
" Wow, Nico never really gets mad or anything, what did you say?" I said.
Merope looked at me with surprise."Annabeth…are you guilty?"
I gasped,"how did you know?"
" Your heartbeat, it's beating in a certain way which can tell me if you're happy, scared, guilty, lying or telling the truth."
" Oh, that's a scary skill." I was really being earnest."How."
Merope sighed," I told you guys on the first day I met you that I can manipulate sound."
" Really, can you sing?"
" Like a chicken."
I laughed. I was glad Merope didn't feel any animosity towards me.
" I insulted Nico and his sister," Merope stated randomly,"He was pretty upset. He didn't talk to us for the entire day."
" Oh I-" Suddenly the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. Percy muttering Luke, Nico getting upset over Bianca, all three of them waiting to sleep. Of course, and then you add the dragons…It almost makes perfect sense! "Merope! I know what the first gift is now!" I yelled in triumph.
" What? Well what is it?"
I was already speeding back to everyone else, Merope right behind me. Those three lucky idiots.
Suddenly the ground opened beneath me, everything seemed to go slow motion from there, I saw Percy and Leo turn around and try to reach me. I felt Merope falling in with me. The only thing that was going in normal time was dark and pressuring voice. It was actually smoother, a little bit quieter, but that didn't mean I was any less terrified.
" I'm sorry Annabeth, I'm afraid you can't just tell them the answer. This is why Athena's children are always so annoying." She spoke to me as if we were old friends."I'll have to keep you captive until your friends come rescue you. This will give them motivation to finally come into my cave. I'm tired of waiting."
I froze I couldn't move or speak. I just remember the darkness closing in around me as Gaea closed the earth behind me.
When I finally opened my eyes, I was no longer breathing in dry air, it was worse. I felt as if I could barley breathe at all, my lungs churned for more air, but I just couldn't. Is this something Nico endured as well? He had the seeds though, I didn't. Then I saw the earth mother. I couldn't help but notice how beautiful she was. She was definitely different. Her hair was still long and dark, but her eyes were the deepest shade of blood red. She was wearing a large dress made from swan feathers and she looked no older than 30.
Gaea smiled,"Don't breathe too much, your friend over there looks like she needs some air too."
I looked down, Merope was sleeping, however, judging from her raspy breaths, I guessed she had limited air as well. The cage was glass and it was in the shape of a sphere. I didn't know how but we were floating.
" Unlike another someone, you demigods don't have the ability to survive in this type of trap for more than a few hours. So your friends better hurry or else you'll die." She smiled a wickedly beautiful smile.
I wanted to protest, but I stopped myself.
" That's right, better not talk or else the air will go faster." Gaea glanced down,"Hey look, your friends are here."
I saw black spots forming, before they enveloped me, I looked down, Percy, Thalia, and the others stormed into the cave, all dragons except Festus with them.
Idiots, I thought. Then I blacked out.
Chapter 18 end
Wow I'm proud of myself! 2,752 words!